Raiffeisen, the third largest banking group in Switzerland and largest retail bank, is deploying VASCO® solutions to secure online banking among its 3.7 million customer base. Every year, Raiffeisen processes more than 100 million payment transactions via e-banking. The bank is replacing the matrix card it previously relied on for security.

VASCO’s CRONTO solution is an innovative authentication and transaction signing solution that enables banks to effectively defend against sophisticated hacking attacks. An encrypted bar code consisting of colored dots is displayed on the customer's PC screen. The customer uses the camera in their mobile phone or VASCO-built handheld device to capture this bar code which is instantly decoded to display the transaction details for user verification.

Users can choose whether they use a mobile app installed on their smartphone, or a hardware DIGIPASS® device with CRONTO technology that has a built-in camera to scan the colored bar code.

“Thanks to PhotoTAN technology, no customer has ever had a manipulated payment,” stated Thomas Etter, Head of E-banking at Raiffeisen Switzerland. “Also, customer feedback has been very positive which is of the utmost importance for us, because we always want to balance between user convenience and security.”

“The frequency and sophistication of attacks against online banking continues to increase, which has caused problems for banks and their customers,” stated Scott Clements, President and COO of VASCO Data Security. “CRONTO technology delivers the best of both worlds - the highest level of security and the ultimate in user convenience.”